White House reacts to jobs report

By Donovan Slack

05/03/13 10:13 AM EDT

White House economist Alan Krueger responded to Friday's jobs report with much the same message he has been issuing for months: The economy continues to recover from the recession but more needs to be done.

Friday's report showed the economy added 165,000 jobs in April while unemployment dropped to 7.5 percent. As POLITICO's MJ Lee reports over on the home page, the figures beat analysts' expectations but still reflect sluggish growth.

Krueger focused on the overall growth trend, noting that the private sector has added jobs every month for the past 38 months for a total of 6.8 million jobs, and he continued to push Congress on the sequester cuts.

"Now is not the time for Washington to impose self-inflicted wounds on the economy," he said. "The Administration continues to urge Congress to replace the sequester with balanced deficit reduction, while working to put in place measures to create middle-class jobs, such as by rebuilding our roads and bridges and promoting American manufacturing."